


What Lies on the Other Side

by the_Dark_Weird_Way7



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Canon Divergence, Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, F/F, F/M, I'm so sorry, M/M, Temporary Character Death, anthropomorphic Night Vale, basically spoilers for everything, but also i'm not, just go with me on this okay?, kind of inspired by certain events in season1 of stranger things?, let's pretend ep 103 and 104 didn't happen, maybe hallucinations, read this if you're caught up, spoilers for ghost stories, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-13 03:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10505886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_Dark_Weird_Way7/pseuds/the_Dark_Weird_Way7
Summary: "Someone's going to kill you some day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror..."





	

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The life of Cecil Palmer has been fairly long and very complicated, and it's all tied to one tragic prophecy.

Cecil Palmer is born in the town of Night Vale.

The night before he entered the world, screaming and covered in viscera, Cecil's mother, Jan Palmer proudly announced to those who came to wish her well on the delivery that her son would grow up to be a fine, upstanding citizen, who would find love and comfort in his community.

"Much better than his father ever was," she remarked, although no one was really sure what to make of that, since Cecil's father had been erased from all recorded history by the City Council.

 

Cecil Palmer is two years old.

His older sister plays hide-and-pretend-you-don't-exist with him after school in the living room, while his mother makes dinner.

He's a generally happy toddler and, like the little reporter he's destined to become, he's constantly interviewing neighbors and shoppers in the grocery store, asking them about their daily blood stone rituals and what their favorite color is and if having a favorite light wave somehow softens the realization that they're going to die one day. The people who don't immediately run screaming from the curious toddler just chuckle and ruffle the little tyke's hair.

Cecil's mother, Jan, suffers from migraines, but she puts on a good face for the children. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Jan is assaulted with nightly visions of the many ways Cecil was destined to die. All of them, in some way, involve a mirror.

 

Cecil Palmer is five years old.

The night of Cecil's fifth birthday, a group of hooded figures gather around a large stone tablet in the Hall of Public Records and chisel a prophecy. The dawning of a new Voice is imminent, and soon, give or take a few decades, Leonard Burton would be replaced. 

Jan Palmer is then instructed to gift her son the municipally approved _Little Reporter's Book of Big Boy Note Taking,_ which the dead eyed messenger guarantees will help prepare the young Voice for a career in radio.

She tries her best to appear cheerful, but she's so tired, so drained. Her visions have gotten worse, more detailed and gory than they were before. It takes all she can do to look her children in the eyes.

 

Cecil Palmer is ten years old.

He receives his scarlet letter indicating he has been chosen to become a member of the Boy Scouts of Night Vale. His friend, Earl Harlan, has also been accepted, and they spend practically every waking moment together. On days when Jan Palmer's visions have become too much, and she can't get out of bed, Cecil stays with the Harlans while Abby helps her recover.

At ten years old, Cecil Palmer receives a new prophecy from his mother.

_Someone's going to kill you someday, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror... Mark my words, child..._

 

Cecil Palmer is 15 years old.

Cecil has a mother who drinks to block out the constant visions of her son's death, until she lies comatose in her bed, too intoxicated to notice whether or not Cecil's been eating, head too deep in her pillow to hear the cruel comments the other kids hurl at Cecil from the bus stop about his messy, DIY haircuts and shoes so old they're held together only by duct tape and dark magic. 

Cecil has a sister, but she left for college.

Cecil vaguely remembers a third person, but since he'd never known his father, he assumed that third being was a family dog or a shadow of the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lived in their Home.

All of the mirrors in Cecil's house have been covered, or smashed.

 

Cecil Palmer is 15 years old.

Cecil has a mother, but he hasn't seen her in a few days, possibly because she's proud of his new internship job at the radio station.

Cecil has a sister, but he hasn't heard much from Abby in a while.

Cecil lives alone (with the exception of the Faceless Old Woman).

All of the mirrors in Cecil's house are covered, and the ones that were previously smashed have somehow repaired themselves.

 

Cecil Palmer is 15 years old.

Cecil works at the radio station with Leonard Burton.

Cecil knows he's being followed, but not by whom or what.

At night, he can feel a buzzing, dark presence caress his face, whispering radio static into his ear, but when he sits up, the room is dark and empty.

Though he cannot explain why, Cecil stops regularly chanting in his blood stone circle.

 

Cecil Palmer is 15 years old.

Cecil had a mother, but she doesn't exist anymore. Where did she go? Did he ever actually have a mother? He can barely remember her, but she couldn't have been gone more than two weeks.

Cecil has a sister, he thinks? If so, what was her name?

Cecil still works at the radio station with Leonard.

Cecil uncovers the mirrors in his home in the middle of the night.

Though he cannot explain why he does it, Cecil destroys his neglected blood stone circle.

Cecil is fine.

 

Cecil Palmer was 15 years old.

Cecil Palmer looked in the mirror for the first time in years.

And what looked back was the monster his mother always feared.

 

Cecil Palmer died at 15 years old.

Long, black tendrils snaked out from the mirror and wrapped themselves around Cecil's neck.

Cecil thrashed and screamed against the beast, but its grip tightened and soon, he had no more air to scream with.

The tendril thrust Cecil's body to the floor, and above him, just past the ceiling, Cecil could see a dark planet lit by no sun.

Long forgotten voices chanting in unfamiliar languages filled his mind until he was deaf to the world around him.

 

Cecil Palmer closed his eyes as the tendril pulled his limp body into the mirror.

 

Cecil Palmer drowns in the void. It's quiet and cold and dark.

 

Cecil Palmer awoke what felt like years later in a bed that wasn't his own, looking up at a stressed out Abby and a team of secret police officers.

No one questioned him about an attack from the mirror, no one asked where his mother had gone. He had no memory of these things anyway, so asking would just be pointless.

The City Council ruled that Abby was to be Cecil's guardian until he was 18, which meant dropping out of college and finding two or three full-time jobs to pay off the mountain (if you believe in that sort of thing) of debt their mother had left.

 

From the age of 16 on, Cecil instinctively avoided mirrors.

Though he couldn't remember anything that had happened the night he died, he always felt a sense of dread when he approached any sort of reflective glass, and so went out of his way to cover it up.

 

Cecil is now 38 years old.

He's happily married to a scientist from somewhere other than Night Vale.

He still works at the radio station, though now he's a full-time host for Night Vale Community Radio, Leonard Burton having long since... Retired? Died? Gone on a lengthy vacation?

Cecil has seen many things in his lifetime.

Some things he remembers sharply, down to the last minuscule detail.

And some things, like how he spent entire decades, old friends, important calendar dates... Not so much.

 

Cecil Palmer is 38 years old.

Cecil Palmer is happily married.

Cecil Palmer is a human being.

These are all facts, backed up by city records and the dozens of carefully placed listening devices within the Palmer-Scientist household.

If you were to ask anyone, the people of Night Vale would tell you Cecil was a friendly man, if a bit overenthusiastic at times. He chanted in his blood stone circle everyday, wholeheartedly cared for his community, and was pretty frequently in trouble with Sheriff Sam, the City Council, Station Management, and occasionally all three, for saying things on the radio that were forbidden.

If you were to ask anyone, the older people of Night Vale would say Cecil was nothing like his mother. 

If you were to ask anyone else, they would say he was just like his mother. They had the same eyes, same dimpled smile, same proficiency in psychic arts, same tendency to wax poetic and romanticize everything... Not that these people would ever tell Cecil. Some things were best left alone. Most things were, in fact.

If you were to ask anyone, they people of Night Vale would shake their heads and say, "It's just a shame, y'know? Just a damn shame." Though to be fair this isn't entirely in reference to Cecil or his family. This is mostly a general statement about the state of everything existing now, existing yesterday, and otherwise. It's all just a damn shame.

 

 


End file.
